This invention relates to childrens' potty chairs and more particulary to such devices having a mechanism for sounding musical tones upon use by the child.
There are various musical potty chairs in the prior art, most of which utilize a commercially available music box mechanism for producing the desired musical tones. Some devices are battery operated, see for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,691,980, issued Sept. 19, 1972 to Shastal, while others are spring actuated, as is the music box of the present invention. All of these devices, however, provide a spring based pivoting support for the potty. The support is usually arranged so that when the child eliminates, the additional weight of the excrement in the potty causes the support to undergo pivotal movement in opposition to the spring. This pivotal movement then causes a member to disengage the escapement mechanism of a music box to enable it to operate. The moving parts of these devices, especially the potty, comprise a substantial mass, the inertia of which must be overcome, including static friction of the mechanism, solely by the small weight of the child's excrement. The mechanism, therefore, must be finely balanced and have low fricton bearings at all pivot points. Another type potty chair is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,663,861 issued Dec. 22, 1953 to Heath. In Heath a battery operated bell ringer is used instead of a music box. Two closely spaced electrical contacts are shorted by the presence of urine in the bottom of the potty thereby establishing a conductive path between the battery and the bell ringer. Another embodiment of Heath includes a yieldable portion of rubber arranged in the bottom of the potty directly over an electrical switch. It is intended that the weight of the excrement will deform the rubber portion and actuate the switch, thereby establishing the conductive path between the battery and the bell ringer.